for him. It was desire, plain and simple. She would be smart to keep her eyes on the prize, which in this case, was the mission. “You think we have a chance of taking Reed Barnett down?”
“I do. Now stop talking about Reed Barnett and let’s talk about something else. Like how we’ll spend this beautiful evening.”
She couldn’t leave her sister’s wedding. She wouldn’t hear the end of it. “I’m staying at the wedding. My date will take me home.”
Finn appeared a mix of hurt and surprised. “You have a date to this wedding?”
Her sister had fixed her up with George, a coworker of Thomas’s. After suffering through fifteen minutes of awkward conversation, George had ignored her for the rest of the night. Stepping outside with Finn would have gone unnoticed by George. “I have a date.” It was nice for Finn to believe she had moved on and wasn’t still carrying a torch for him. A torch she was trying to extinguish. Finn was part of her spy life and after this mission, she was finished with that.
“Are you dating? Is your date the reason you’re retiring?” Finn sounded indifferent, but he had dropped her hands and had taken a step away from her.
“George has nothing to do with my career plans.” She had met him two days before the wedding at the rehearsal dinner.
“Is he taking you home?” Finn asked, folding his arms over his chest.
He wasn’t. Hyde had driven herself to the wedding. That wasn’t Finn’s business. Hyde held up her hand. “Don’t pretend to care what I do when we’re not together, and don’t act jealous. Territorial doesn’t suit you.”
Finn was perpetually confident and rarely questioned himself. He leaned back away from her. “That’s an unfair statement. I care about you. I want to know what’s going on in your life.”
Hyde scratched at her head where a bobby pin was pressing into her scalp. “I can’t get into it with you here and now.”
“But I want to get into it.” Finn lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed the inside of her wrist.
The caress of his lips nearly broke her defenses. “If we’re working an operation together, we need to keep our relationship chill.” They needed the reminder.
“Chill? What does that mean?” Finn asked.
It meant the opposite of what their relationship had been. No hot sex, no making out, no sleeping together. “It means we’re working together professionally. Nothing else except the mission.”
Lines formed around Finn’s eyes. “I will respect your wishes.” He released her hand.
Hyde was startled by Finn’s acceptance of her statement. Disappointment pinged in her chest. He had let her go easily and it spoke volumes. “I should get back to my family. Are you planning to stick around or do you want to meet at the airport?” She wanted him to say airport. Being around Finn left her feeling like she needed to catch her breath and clear her head.
“I have nowhere else to be and we need to talk more about Barnett.”
“We’ll talk on the journey there,” Hyde said. Finn’s eyes didn’t leave her. His gaze heated her from her head to her toes.
“We should talk now,” Finn said.
“I can’t now.” The urge to cry struck her, which was ridiculous. Spies didn’t cry when they were with their colleagues. Finn had churned up emotions she had worked hard to lock away. She needed time. “Goodbye, Finn.”
As she walked away, she felt him watching her.
Finn remained at the table on the far side of the tent. He had unbuttoned his suit jacket and looked relaxed, as if he hadn’t requested she go with him on a dangerous and complicated mission.
Hyde pretended the wedding held her full attention. She was thinking of Finn and Simon and taking down Reed Barnett. Guests talked and laughed and danced. Hyde worked to put a pleasant expression on her face. She strolled into the crowd and made small talk with her family. When she glanced at the corner table, Finn had disappeared. Regret speared her. She hadn’t invited him to stay at the wedding. Perhaps she should have.
Finn was as much of an outsider as she was. She and her family were pretending that she was part of it, but her absence had taken a toll on her personal relationships.
Hyde caught a glimpse of Finn across the room. He was speaking to a distant cousin, who was laughing and touching his jacket sleeve. Jealousy nipped at her and Hyde suppressed the urge to stake a claim. Hyde turned away and searched for George. The DJ was playing a popular song that had filled the dance floor.
George was speaking to people she didn’t recognize. Hyde looked around for Lydia or Thea. She needed a distraction. Possessiveness and jealousy didn’t work in her relationship with Finn. She and Finn hadn’t discussed their relationship in terms of commitment and exclusivity. This wasn’t the time to make those demands. If they were working together, their personal relationship needed to cool off.
The song changed from a snappy pop tune to a slow love ballad.
“Dance with me,” Finn said, coming up behind her. He slipped his arms around her waist and spun her to face him.
She leaned into him, chest to chest, and his cheek brushed hers. Lust hit her low and hard and she gripped his hands more tightly. Letting go seemed impossible. She had wanted to make a clean break from her spy life and that had included Finn. Now, in his arms, she couldn’t imagine not seeing him again, not having him in her life.
She had been trying to build a new life in Bearcreek, feeling like an outsider. Five minutes with Finn, and she felt at home.
Finn had imagined a number of scenarios on his way to Montana to see Hyde. The entire trip he’d questioned if he’d made the right decision. But worrying about Hyde had taken over his thoughts to an obsessive point, and if he didn’t see her and talk to her, it wouldn’t stop. Coming to Bearcreek was about more than her being the right spy to help with Reed Barnett. He needed to see with his own eyes that she was doing well.
Hyde was in his arms and that made the trip worth it. At least physically, she was fine. No overt injuries, obvious scars, limping or GSWs. He sensed something was bothering her and he would find out what it was.
“Alexandra, will you introduce me to your friend?” A woman’s voice from behind him.
Hyde flinched in his arms and Finn tensed. Hyde broke away from him and he missed the sensation of her soft body against his. He turned. Standing in front of them was a woman with Hyde’s same dark hair, though the other woman’s was cut short. Similar facial features, but hers were softer. The other woman’s expression was also friendlier, her mouth drawn up in an unreserved smile. Hyde carried around the stress of her job and didn’t smile often.
“Lydia, this is my friend Finn,” Hyde said. She folded her hands in front of her and said nothing more.
Lydia looked between him and Hyde. “It’s nice to meet you. Did you and Alexandra work together?”
Finn caught Hyde’s subtle nod. “Yes, we did.” He’d follow her lead about her cover story relating to where she had been the last decade. From what he knew of Hyde, unlike him, she maintained a cozy relationship with her family.
“What brings you to town? I hope you don’t want Hyde to come back to work with you.” Lydia slid her arm around her sister’s waist and hugged her. “We’re grateful to have Alexandra back with us. For the longest time, I felt like I only had one sister.”
The guilty look on Hyde’s face could have been about her frequent travel or it could have been because she had introduced Simon to Lydia.
Finn slid his hands into his pockets. “I’m passing through